Why is Mukul Roy absent from cabinet meetings, asks Congress

Asking why Railway Minister Mukul Roy, from the Trinamool Congress, was absent from most cabinet meetings where decisions like the fuel price hike are taken, West Bengal Congress chief Pradip Bhattacharjee Friday advised the state's ruling party to be a "sensible" ally.

Asking why Railway Minister Mukul Roy, from the Trinamool Congress, was absent from most cabinet meetings where decisions like the fuel price hike are taken, West Bengal Congress chief Pradip Bhattacharjee Friday advised the state's ruling party to be a "sensible" ally.

"We all know it is a tough decision but sometimes tough decisions need to be taken. Trinamool being our ally at centre needs to be more sensible rather than trying to score political points," Bhattacharjee told IANS. A day earlier the central government hiked diesel price by Rs.5 a litre and restricted availability of subsidised cooking gas cylinders per family to six per year.

"If they plan to launch agitations against the central government, then we can also launch agitation against the wrongdoings and policies of the state government," Bhattacharjee said.

Asked about the Trinamool's allegation of not being informed about the decision, he said: "This is rubbish. They have a cabinet minister (Mukul Roy) in the cabinet. All the important decisions are taken in the cabinet. Why does he always remain absent from the cabinet meeting?"

"Does he need a special invitation to be present at the cabinet meeting? Most of the times when there is a cabinet meeting, he stays in Kolkata and then Trinamool will say they were not informed. What is this?"

Angry over the diesel price hike, which came into effect Thursday midnight, Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said she would have been happy if she could have withdrawn support to the UPA regime rather than be party to such "anti-people" policies.

She also announced that her party would hit the streets against the decision and threatened that it wouldn't "take me a minute to withdraw support" to the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) if the hike was not reversed.